


Family in Quarantine

by SerenaElisabet



Series: Piece by Piece Universe [2]
Category: Political RPF, Political RPF - US 20th c., Political RPF - US 21st c.
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, F/M, Family, Fluff, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28354494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenaElisabet/pseuds/SerenaElisabet
Summary: It's tough constantly being around each other under one roof nearly 24 hours, 7 days a week while under lockdown due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. However, the Rodham-Clinton family found ways to cope with lockdown, have fun together, and to take advantage of the extra free time they now had to spend with each other.An Alternate Universe of the From This Moment On/Piece by Piece Billary Alternate Universe.
Relationships: Bill Clinton/Hillary Clinton
Series: Piece by Piece Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076525
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Family in Quarantine

**Author's Note:**

> A belated Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope if you celebrate Christmas, that you had as lovely and joyful of a day as I did! And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you still had a great day and made the best of things! Even though I couldn't think of any Christmas/holiday themed ideas, this story is my belated Christmas present to the Billary fandom! I love all of you and thank you for always being so kind and supportive! :) I meant to finish and post it sooner but work got surprisingly busy this past week before the holidays. But its here now! 
> 
> For context, the inspiration for this fic came from an anonymous user ask on Tumblr who suggested a fic about Billary, Jessica, Chelsea, and Hayley from Piece by Piece, being in quarantine together. And I LOVED the idea but timeline wise, in Piece by Piece we're in August 2007 right now so by 2020, Jessica and Chelsea are in their thirties with families of their own and the other kids are teenagers. Not that I don't have ideas for present day/near future fics set in that universe but I don't want to spoil anything. You guys probably have an idea of where that story is heading lol but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's focus on reuniting Bill and Hillary in 2007 first before jumping ahead to 2020 and beyond haha. But like I said, I thought it was a great idea and decided an AU of an AU kind of thing could be fun to write. I couldn't get the idea out of my head and certain scenes/ideas kept coming to me so...here we are. It's the Piece by Piece Universe, but set in 2020 rather than the mid 2000s. Hope that makes sense. Thank you very much for the idea, whoever suggested/requested it! 
> 
> The characters are about the same ages they are in Piece by Piece right now but since its an AU of an AU, I did decide to tweak the timeline and changed things up SLIGHTLY for this one. Bill and Hillary are still in their late forties, Chelsea is 19, Jessica is 23, Hayley is 3, but Sophia is 2 years old in this one, so I aged her up a little bit. And Bill and Hillary never broke up/divorced in this version of the universe. 
> 
> I think that's about it and I've rambled long enough. On with the story but if you have any questions, feel free to send me an ask on Tumblr at serena-waldorf or leave your question in the comments!

**October 2020**

“What’s that?”    
“That’s an elephant.”   
“Elephant?!”   
Chelsea Clinton’s two year old niece, Sophia, stared up at her aunt with a big grin on her face. Chelsea couldn’t help but grin in return at the expression on her niece's face. She nodded enthusiastically.    
“That’s an elephant. Good job! You’re so smart, Sophie.”    
“And what’s that?” Sophia pointed to a picture of a cat in the picture book about animals that Chelsea and Sophia were currently reading together while Sophia’s mom, Jessica, was in a Zoom class for her senior year Political Science seminar class.    
“That’s a cat,” Chelsea informed her niece.    
“Cat!” Sophia squealed excitedly as Chelsea flipped the page. She loved cats. “And what’s that?” She pointed her little finger to a picture of another animal.    
“That’s a zebra, sweetie.” Chelsea smiled to herself. She had her own schoolwork she should be doing and she had to hop on Zoom soon herself for a history lecture but she loved spending time with her niece and helping her older sister out.    
“Zebra,” Sophia happily said, with the ‘r’ sounding more like a ‘w’, just as Jessica came and stood in the doorway of Chelsea’s bedroom. “Mama!” Sophia jumped off of Chelsea’s bed and excitedly ran over to her mother.    
“Hi, baby!” Jessica leaned down and gently scooped her daughter up, comfortably resting the little girl against her hip. “Ugh, you’re getting heavy, baby girl.”    
“All done with class?” Chelsea asked her sister, as she closed the picture book that she and Sophia had been flipping through.    
Jessica nodded. “I’m done for the day. Thank you  _ so _ much for watching her, Chels. I really appreciate it. You’re a lifesaver.”   
“Oh, no problem. I love spending time with her,” Chelsea reassured her sister. “It’s not like I had anywhere else better to be,” She joked.    
Jessica chuckled but the feeling was bittersweet. It was nice that their family, including their parents and their youngest sister, Hayley, could all be under one roof together during the pandemic but that didn’t mean that cabin fever hadn’t been setting in after being cooped up inside together for nearly eight months.    
Chelsea checked the time. “Oh, I better log on for my own class.”    
Jessica nodded in agreement. “See you in a few hours.”    
Chelsea nodded as she got up from her bed and walked across the room over to her desk. 

“Let’s go get a snack, Princess,” Jessica said to Sophia, as she re-adjusted her daughter on her hip and walked downstairs. Jessica had just put Sophia in her high chair and was reaching into the kitchen cupboard for a box of crackers when her mother came into the kitchen of their Chappaqua, New York home and started washing her hands.    
Being a lawyer, Hillary was luckily able to work from home for the most part during the pandemic but she still had had to go into her law firm’s New York City office occasionally over the past few months to get certain tasks done. She had just come back from picking up her mail and other important documents that she needed from the office for the next day and was now about to start cooking dinner.    
“Hey, sweetheart,” she said to her oldest daughter.    
“Hi, mom.” Jessica flashed a grin at her mother as she grabbed a block of cheddar cheese out of the fridge.    
“Is your dad still at the park with Hayley?” Hillary asked, as Jessica grabbed a knife and started cutting off small chunks of cheese.    
Jessica nodded. “I think so.”    
After having served one term as the Attorney General of Arkansas, and several terms as Governor, after losing his last bid for re-election, the family had moved to Chappaqua, New York several years ago and Bill was now a law professor at Columbia (but teaching online for the past few months due to the pandemic). He was finished teaching for the day and since he was caught up for once on his lesson plans and his grading, he had decided to take his youngest daughter to the park to get her out of her older sisters’ hair while they attended their virtual college classes, and so that she could run around and burn off all of her three year old energy. He knew it was tough for the three year old to be cooped up inside for most of the day due to the pandemic. And while the family tried to stay home as much as possible to be safe, and only left the house for essential reasons for the most part, the park up the street from their house luckily wasn't very crowded during the day on a weekday.    
Hillary nodded in return as she grabbed a piece of paper towel from the roll next to the sink and dried her hands.    
“Gwamma!” Sophia happily squealed.    
“Hi, Princess!” Hillary grinned happily at her granddaughter. No one had been more shocked (besides Jessica herself) than Bill and Hillary when their twenty-one year old daughter had gotten unexpectedly pregnant in her junior year of college but they absolutely loved and adored their granddaughter. She had been the perfect addition to their family and they were extremely proud of Jessica for being an amazing mother while still working to pursue her goals and dreams. While she was slightly behind schedule with finishing college due to needing to take some time off when Sophia was born, she only had a few credits left to complete that she needed before graduating. If everything went according to plan, she was on track to finish college and get her degree by the spring of 2021.  And Hillary had been in her final semester of law school when she became pregnant with Jessica as the result of a law school fling, so after the intital shock of the news had worn off, she had been understanding. It would have been hypocritical of her not to be.    
“Soup?” Sophia suddenly asked.    
Jessica chuckled. “No, honey. You can have your soup tomorrow.” She knew her daughter loved instant ramen noodles. “Mommy’s making us some cheese and crackers right now and grandma’s going to start dinner soon.”    
“Oh, okay.” Sophia nodded contentedly.    
Hillary couldn’t help but chuckle and smirk at how damn adorable her granddaughter was.    
  


After Jessica and Sophia had eaten their snack of cheese and crackers, Jessica gave her daughter a  _ Frozen _ coloring book and some crayons to hopefully occupy her while Jessica decided to help Hillary with preparing dinner, as they waited for Bill and Hayley to return from the park.    
“A, B, C, D, E, F, G,” Sophia suddenly started happily singing the ABC’s to herself while she excitedly scribbled away in her coloring book. “H, I, J, K, L, M…”    
Hillary smiled over at granddaughter as she put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. She looked over at Jessica who was standing at the kitchen island, chopping vegetables for a green salad. “She’s so smart, Jess. Did you teach her that?”    
“Um, no,” Jessica said with raised eyebrows, confused why her daughter had just started singing the ABC’s out of the blue. She gave Hillary a befuddled look. “I thought you did?”    
“Nope,” Hillary said, shaking her head, just as confused as Jessica.    
“Hey, Chels,” Jessica said, seeing her younger sister wander into the kitchen to get a glass of water while her class had a five minute break. “Did you teach Sophia how to sing the alphabet?” She knew that her younger sister loved reading to her niece and teaching her new things.    
Chelsea shrugged as she grabbed a water glass out of a kitchen cupboard while Sophia continued happily singing away. “Nope.”   
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5…” Sophia had suddenly moved on from singing the alphabet to counting to ten, collectively blowing Hillary, Chelsea, and Jessica’s minds all at once.    
“6, 7, 8, 9, 10!” Sophia gave her grandmother, mom, and aunt a proud smile when she was finished.    
“Okay, I  _ definitely _ did not teach her  _ that _ ,” Jessica stated with a surprised look on her face.    
“Me neither,” Chelsea piped in.    
“Me neither,” Hillary added, equally as confused as her daughters were.    
“She must have learned it from a cartoon or something,” Jessica said with a shrug. She tried not to let her daughter watch too much television but sometimes she had to resort to giving Sophia her iPad to watch kids shows on Netflix while she took a shower or attended school virtually, during those times when her parents and Chelsea were too busy to watch her.    
“Yeah, that must be it,” Chelsea agreed with a nod.    
“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Hillary also nodded in agreement. She smiled to herself, proud that her granddaughter was proving to be just as smart as her mother, aunts, and grandparents were.    
Chelsea suddenly smirked just as she was about to leave the kitchen and go back to her bedroom to finish her Zoom lecture. “Either that or she’s just a little genius.” Chelsea shrugged with a smile still on her face and exited the kitchen to go back to “class.”   
  


* * * * *

Later that evening, after Hillary and Jessica had put Hayley and Sophia to bed respectively and Jessica and Chelsea had retreated to their bedrooms to relax and/or do schoolwork, Hillary and Bill were taking advantage of the house being quiet and no one needing anything from them, to spend some quality time together on the living room couch.    
“Oh, thank you, honey,” Hillary gratefully said with a soft smile as her husband brought her a glass of Chardonnay and a beer for himself.    
“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” Bill said. He smiled to himself as he sat down on the couch and his wife cuddled up to him. “Do you want to watch some TV or something?”    
Hillary shrugged slightly. “Sure. Or we could just talk?”    
Bill nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we can talk.”    
They had definitely talked more and gotten to spend more quality time together over the past eight months than they had in their entire twenty year marriage thanks to all the extra free time they had on their hands in quarantine. And since they were living  _ and _ working together under the same roof, they were basically together 24/7 for the most part. But it amazed Bill that after nearly twenty-one years of marriage, they never ran out of things to talk about whether it was something silly and mundane or something more serious. He always loved their conversations and he took great pleasure in the fact that their conversations were always interesting and intellectually stimulating. He loved that his wife challenged him on a daily basis and that they challenged each other.    
Plus, he actually didn’t mind sharing a home office with his wife in quarantine. It reminded him of when he and Hillary were younger and had worked together at the law firm where they had first met. He had his own home office and used it when he had to teach classes on Zoom, but for all other work, he liked using the extra desk in Hillary’s home office so that they could be together during the day while they worked.    
  


“Is it bad that I’m happy that our girls are all at home under the same roof right now?” Hillary suddenly asked, biting her lower lip. “I mean I hate the circumstances and the reason  _ why _ they’re living at home, but is it wrong of me to be happy and relieved about it, too?” She took a sip of her wine and looked away, as if she almost felt shame or guilt about this admission. She felt horrible that Jessica and Chelsea couldn’t have a “normal” and traditional college experience because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jessica had moved back home shortly before Sophia was born so that Bill and Hillary could help her with the baby and she had commuted into the city for school prior to the pandemic. But at least she had gotten to experience three years of a “typical” college experience of living in a dorm on the NYU campus prior to getting pregnant with Sophia. Poor Chelsea had only been a few months into her freshman year of college at Stanford in California when the dorms closed and Chelsea had to move back home.    
Bill considered his wife’s words for a moment and slightly nodded, having often had similar thoughts about the situation in the past. It was definitely bittersweet having his two oldest daughters home during this time. Like his wife, he was thrilled to have them home but he also hated the reason why things had to be the way they were.    
“I think it's completely normal to have those kinds of feelings and emotions about the situation, sweetheart,” Bill began. He took a sip of his beer and was about to continue when they suddenly heard shouting coming from the direction of Jessica’s bedroom.    
“Uh-oh,” Hillary said, looking in the direction of the staircase.    
Despite the four years between them, Jessica and Chelsea were best friends and were super close to one another. They didn’t usually have disagreements other than typical sisterly tiffs but being in quarantine, and being together almost 24/7, both girls were starting to develop a case of cabin fever as of late with their fights increasing in frequency and intensity over the last couple of weeks.    
“I’ll go see what’s going on,” Bill said, as he got up from the couch before the yelling could wake Hayley or Sophia up.    
Hillary followed her husband upstairs, to see what all of the commotion was about. 

“It’s  _ my _ sweater, Chelsea!”    
“But you said I could borrow it!” Chelsea argued.    
“But then you freaking  _ shrunk _ it in the wash! That was my favorite sweater!” Jessica rolled her eyes in frustration and annoyance at her little sister. Money was tight for her since the dance studio that she used to teach classes at and do administrative work for was closed due to the pandemic. And when money is tight and you have a child to support, new clothes become one of the first expenses you cut out of your budget.  Bill and Hillary were happy to help out their daughter and granddaughter financially since they could afford to, but Jessica was also incredibly stubborn and wanted to support herself and do things on her own.  
Bill and Hillary entered Jessica’s room to see the two sisters arguing over Jessica’s sweater which Jessica was holding up in her right hand as she gave Chelsea an annoyed stare. Meanwhile, Hayley had apparently woken up, gotten out of bed, and come to Jessica’s bedroom. She was taking advantage of her sisters being distracted by the sweater and using the opportunity to jump on Jessica’s bed.    
“Jesus Christ,” Hillary groaned to herself. She sighed to herself before she decided to put Hayley back to bed. “Come, on, Hayls. Let’s go back to bed,” she urged, reaching her hand out to her youngest daughter.    
“But I’m playing!” Hayley squealed, as she continued bouncing away.    
“Sweetheart, it’s  _ way _ past your bedtime  _ and _ you’re not supposed to be jumping on the bed. You know that,” Hillary gently said. “Come on, let’s go back to bed,” she repeated.    
Hayley reluctantly sighed before she relented. She jumped off of the bed, ran over to Hillary and let her mother take her back to her own bedroom leaving Bill to deal with Chelsea and Jessica.    
“Girls, it's just a sweater,” Bill said in an exasperated tone of voice. His oldest daughters had been bickering more than usual lately and he was getting sick of it. He understood that being home together nearly 24/7 was tough on all of them, but he just wanted his daughters to get along again like they used to. “We can buy you a new one, Jess.”    
Jessica sighed and nodded. It hadn’t really been about the sweater. She knew material objects were replaceable. The frustrations of being cooped up inside almost all of the time, and not being able to have her normal routine and her normal social life were getting to her. Usually going on long walks, either with her family or just with Sophia, was how she coped mentally when things got tough but since the weather had been getting colder and her schoolwork had been picking up with the end of the fall semester fast approaching, she hadn’t had time to go for a walk lately. She decided that the next day, she would make the time to go with Sophia on a nice long walk through the woods near their house.    
“I’m sorry, Chels,” She apologized. “It’s not your fault. These things happen.”   
Chelsea nodded. “And I’m sorry that I shrunk your sweater. I’ll buy you a new one.”    
Jessica nodded. Christmas was quickly approaching but she also wasn't very concerned about the sweater anymore. “I love you, Chelsea.” She gave her younger sister a hug, to assure her that she didn’t care about the sweater.    
“I love you, too,” Chelsea said with a smile as she hugged her older sister in return.    
“That’s better.” Bill smiled to himself, happy to see that his daughters were getting along again. It reminded him of when they were younger and they would make up after a sisterly spat.    
“Sorry we were fighting, Dad,” Chelsea sincerely apologized.    
“It’s okay,” Bill assured his daughter. “I’m just happy that you two apologized to each other and that you're getting along now.”    
The girls nodded. Chelsea hugged her father on her way out of Jessica’s bedroom while Jessica sat down cross-legged in the middle of her bed.    
“I love you, Dad,” Chelsea said, as Bill leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on top of Chelsea’s curly hair.    
“Love you, too, Sweetheart,” Bill murmured into her hair.    
Chelsea broke apart from the embrace and went next door to her own bedroom, to finish her reading for next day’s classes.    
“I love you, Jess,” Bill said, leaning down to kiss the top of his oldest daughter’s hair.    
“I love you, too, Bill.” Jessica smiled up at her stepfather before she opened her laptop and opened her web browser to the latest episode of  _ The Bachelorette,  _ her favorite guilty pleasure.    
“See you in the morning,” Bill murmured before he left Jessica alone to watch her show in peace. 

He ran into Hillary in the upstairs hallway as she was coming out of Hayley’s bedroom, having just put the three year old back to bed.    
“Everything good now?” Hillary checked, as she closed Hayley’s bedroom door shut behind her.    
“Crisis averted,” Bill assured his wife with a knowing and relieved smile.    
  


* * * * *

A few days later, it was Hillary’s birthday. After they had gotten takeout from Hillary’s favorite Italian restaurant in town for dinner, the family had gathered in the living room of their home for cake and present opening after dinner. They were even letting Hayley and Sophia stay up  _ slightly _ past their bedtimes for it.    
“Happy birthday to you!” The family finished singing as Jessica put a circular shaped chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that was decorated with light blue roses, down onto the coffee table in front of Hillary.    
“Aww, this is lovely!” Hillary said with a big grin as she stared down at the cake. Pandemic birthdays were definitely bittersweet but Hillary was just overjoyed and grateful that she could celebrate with her entire family present. That was all she really needed and wanted for her birthday. “Thank you guys.”    
She smiled at Bill, her daughters, and granddaughter. But just as she was about to blow out the candles, Sophia, who had been cuddled up on Bill’s lap, suddenly scampered off of her grandfather’s lap and ran over to Hillary. She stood on her tippy toes and started blowing on the cake with her little lips.    
“Birthday!” (or “Birday” as she sweetly called it) she happily squealed.    
Jessica chuckled. “No, sweetie. That’s grandma’s cake. It’s her birthday today. Your birthday was in July, baby girl.”    
“Oh, she can help me blow out the candles,” Hillary assured Jessica with a soft smile. “I don’t mind.” She scooped up Sophia and got her settled comfortably on her lap. “Do you want to help grandma blow out her candles, sweetheart?”    
Sophia sweetly nodded and grinned.    
“Okay, here we go,” Hillary said, still smiling broadly before she and Sophia blew out the candles together.    
“Yay!” Sophia excitedly squealed before she happily clapped her hands, causing all the adults present to sweetly chuckle at her.    
“Cake!” Hayley suddenly demanded.    
“We’ll have cake in just a minute, sweetheart,” Bill assured her. “Hold your horses,” he chuckled as Chelsea grabbed the knife and started dividing the cake up into slices for all of them.    
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…” Out of the blue, Sophia suddenly started counting to ten again.    
“Good job, baby girl,” Bill gave his granddaughter a proud smile.    
Proudly smiling back, Sophia finished. “7, 8, 9...10!”    
“She just started doing that the other day,” Jessica informed Bill. “It’s the weirdest thing, because I certainly didn’t teach her how to count to ten. And neither did Mom or Chelsea.” She chuckled to herself and shook her head. “We think she picked it up from a TV show or something.”    
Bill smirked and gave Sophia a knowing smile. “And how about you show Mommy, Grandma, and your Aunties what else we worked on the other day, sweetheart?”    
“A, B, C, D, E, F, G,” Sophia started sweetly singing the alphabet again. “H, I, J, K, L….”   
“Wait,” Hillary said. Her brows furrowed as she suddenly put the pieces together.    
Jessica raised her eyebrows in surprise but also in understanding as she finally also figured it out.    
“Wait, you taught her how to count to ten?” Hillary asked, confused.    
“And how to sing the alphabet?” Jessica added.    
Bill just gave his wife and daughters a knowing and proud smile as Sophia finished off her song.    
“W, X, Y, and Z. Now I know my ABC’s. Next time won’t you sing with me?”   
“Aww, good job!” Hillary complimented, grinning at her granddaughter.   
Chelsea chuckled. "I thought she was just a little genius and taught herself."   
Bill laughed. "Well, even though I taught her and she didn't teach herself, she is still definitely a genius."   
The whole family chuckled and nodded.   
"I can't disagree with you there," Jessica joked, excited that her daughter was already proving to be incredibly smart, at only two years old.   
"At this rate, she'll be reading in no time," Bill joked with a hearty chuckle.   
As the family ate birthday cake together, and Hillary began to open her presents, the Rodham-Clinton family knew that while they may be living through unprecedented tough and uncertain times, they all had each other, no matter what, through thick and thin and they were all together, safe and healthy at home. They really couldn’t ask for anything more than that. 

**The End**

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little fic! A Piece by Piece update is hopefully coming soon since I have Monday off work due to Boxing Day landing on a Saturday this year. I'm in the middle of writing the next chapter so hopefully I'll have it posted in the next day or two.
> 
> And again, Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to you all! :)


End file.
